the UW Sustainability blog
How do people really use the buildings on campus? A Green Seed Fund grant allowed a team of researchers to answer that question by developing a tool to audit users and better understand the effects of occupant behavior on building energy consumption.
The Washington Park Arboretum staff uses utility vehicles to maintain the park grounds, but current diesel vehicles are a source of pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions (as well as being loud).
A team of researchers used a Green Seed Fund grant to discover whether biodiesel or electric vehicles would be the better option to replace the current fleet when looking at carbon footprint, performance, cost and user satisfaction.
With a new water conservation system put into place, Mercer Court is revolutionizing the way students do laundry.
HFS uses a cistern, a tank used to catch and store rainwater for the purpose of delivering laundry services to more than 1,300 students living in the apartment complex. JR Fulton, HFS's capital planning and sustainability manager, says that about 90 to 95 percent of water used in the washing machine is coming from the cistern.
On the southeast side of Gould Hall, the UW Green Wall project perches, providing a home for plants, birds and insects while helping to conserve water and reduce energy needs.
A team funded by a Green Seed Fund grant is studying the Green Wall to quantify the effects of the green wall. The research is documenting plant growth, bird and insect sightings, water use, the impact on the urban heat island effect and building energy performance.
What was once a bustling sawmill in the late 1800s is now home to more than 100 species of birds, turtles, ducks, and even a beaver family.
I’m talking about Yesler Swamp, one of the few true swamps remaining in Seattle and a unique part of Washington’s vanishing urban forest. It’s hidden in a grove of trees just east of the UW Center for Urban Horticulture, remaining a fairly unknown public area to this day.
You may not have noticed, but as you walk around the UW campus more of those plants and flowers at your feet are species native to Puget Sound.
That’s because UW’s Society for Ecology Restoration student guild (SER-UW) native plant nursery has been working to restore areas on campus by increasing native species biodiversity and creating open spaces for students to engage with the natural world just steps from their residence halls.
A team from UW’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) used a Green Seed Fund Grant to increase sustainable practices in the department's 20 labs.
How do LEED-certified buildings measure up on indoor environmental quality? UW’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering conducted an investigation, funded by a Green Seed Grant, at the LEED Gold-certified Husky Union Building (HUB) to find out.
When his friends were buying cars, UW student Scott Calvert was busy saving money for a better bike.
It's a passion he's sharing with UW by working at the ASUW bike shop - a hub for the UW biking community that's detailed in this video.
Photo courtesy of Meili Powell, Tali Haller, Dana Chapman, and Mikayla Richardson
Last spring, a group of UW students traveled more than 200 miles to help teach three sixth grade classes about the environment.
"Our overarching goal was to perpetuate love for the environment, but also teach kids how to affect change on the local level," said Tali Haller, one of the UW student teachers.